


Paper Flowers

by theartificem



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, Valentines au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-15
Updated: 2015-02-15
Packaged: 2018-03-12 22:57:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3358412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theartificem/pseuds/theartificem
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You’ve been looking at that bouquet like it’s got Carmilla’s face on it.”</p><p>Laura elbows their stomach. “Shut up,” She stares at the bouquet. “It’s really pretty.”</p><p>“Get your girlfriend to buy it for you.”</p><p>Laura thought that since she has a girlfriend now, she'd be able to spend valentines like they do in the movies, with surprises and bouquets and chocolates and stuffed animals. But Carmilla doesn't do valentines.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Paper Flowers

**Author's Note:**

> flowers are expensive, but vodka isn't.

Laura hates valentines.

Well, not entirely hate, it’s just not her favorite holiday. Maybe it has to do with the fact that she’s been single all her life so she’s never been someone’s valentine, aside from her dad, who would give her a chocolate bar every February 14th so she doesn’t feel left out. And as much as Laura loves him, she wants to know what it feels like to be showered with candies and affection for one whole day, but that never happened. Instead of going out and receiving flowers from a secret admirer when she was younger, Laura spent her valentines every year the same way: watching cheesy rom-coms and pretending that it’s just like any other day.

"So what are your plans this weekend?" LaFontaine says as they take a bite of their sandwich. She met with them for lunch every Tuesday, afterwards Laura would go to her afternoon class and LaFontaine would spend their free period at the lab.

"Uhh, finally write my overdue paper?" Laura replies, twirling her fork in her pasta. Seriously, it’s so hard to get any work done in her room, since her roommate is also her incredibly hot girlfriend and the only thing they manage to do behind closed doors is each other.

Lafontaine looks at her like she’s grown another head. Laura wipes her face with her free hand. "What? Is there something on my face?"

"Do you know what date is it on Saturday?" LaFontaine asks in a surprised voice.

Laura frowns and grabs her phone. She opens the calendar and checks the date. It’s February 14th on Saturday.

"Ohh," Laura puts her phone down on the table and shrugs. "Carmilla doesn’t celebrate valentine’s day, which I’m not surprised. And even if she did," She picks up her fork and shovels some pasta in her mouth. “We wouldn’t be able to go out. Because she’s leaving on Friday and coming back on Sunday.”

“Can I ask where she’s going or is some sort of top-secret vampire business that would include ripping my head off if I knew?”

Laura rolls her eyes. “She’s just going to her Vampire club.” She puts her fork down and looks at LaFontaine. “Did you know that vampires have clubs? Like with a membership id and all that? The perks are they supply you with blood wherever you are. I gotta say, it definitely beats my Backstreet Boys fan club perks.”

“Wow. Who knew super dangerous vamps have their own club, complete with an id. Please tell me she looks horrible in hers.” LaFontaine says with a huge grin.

“She does not look terrible. She never looks terrible.”

LaFontaine makes a whipping sound and Laura sticks her tongue out. “Seriously though,” LaFontaine says, their expression turning serious. “You going to be alright all by yourself?”

"I’ll be fine," Laura answers, waving her hand. "I just finished downloading the Star Wars trilogy so that’ll give me something to do."

"Why don’t you come with me and Perry?"

Laura contemplates about LaFontaine’s offer. Be a third wheel and spend her Saturday night watching Perry and LaF gaze at each other, or write her overdue two thousand word paper about the roman civilization while watching Princess Leia kick ass. She'll pick the latter.

"I don’t want to intrude on your date." She says, giving LaF a smile. "Really, it’s no biggie. It’s just valentines."

She’s not gonna lie. She’s watched the Valentine’s Day movie countless of times and the hopeless romantic in her hopes that Carmilla would get her a teddy bear that’s bigger than her, or surprise her with a bouquet of roses even though she hates flowers, or give her a box of chocolates. Hell she could give Laura a card from a grocery store and she’d be so happy. But Carmilla doesn’t do valentines and after everything that she’s done for Laura (retrieving an ancient sword a thousand miles below the sea and sacrificing yourself and almost dying is kinda hard to beat in terms of the gift giving department), the least she could do is be a good girlfriend and respect Carmilla’s choice.

So even though this is her first valentines with a girlfriend Laura's going to spend it the way she does every year: by pretending it’s like any other day.

\\\  
“Any valentines plans?”

“Seriously?” Laura looks up from her notes to glare at Danny, who’s sitting on the empty table beside her. “Even you?”

“I take it that dead girl doesn’t celebrate valentines?”

“No,” Laura grumbles, going back to her notes. ”What about you and Kirsch?”

Danny shrugs. “I don’t know, he wouldn’t tell me. Please don’t tell me you’re going to spend valentines in your room.”

Laura glares at her. “What’s wrong with that?” Seriously, why do her friends think that her not going out on valentines is the most shocking thing in the world? Even more shocking than the fact that she’s dating a vampire and their school used to be vampire feeding grounds.

“Nothing,” Danny says, raising her hands up in defense. “But if ever you get bored..”

“I’m not going to be a third wheel on your date Danny.” Laura says with a sigh. Also that, her friends are so concerned with her valentine plans that they would rather she chaperone their dates.

“I’ll be fine.” She says, giving Danny a small smile.

“You sure?”

“Yes.” Maybe.

\\\

The door of their room slams open and Laura sighs loudly, not bothering to turn around from the computer screen. It’s too early for Carmilla to be back so it’s probably LaFontaine, or Perry, or Danny and Kirsch.

“I swear if you ask me what I’m doing for valentines I will ask my hot vampire girlfriend to rip out your spine.”

“Wow,” Carmilla’s voice makes Laura jump. She turns around and see’s Carmilla opening the mini fridge, looking for her soy milk carton. “I’m flattered but concerned. I’m supposed to be the grumpy one.”

Laura turns back to the screen and continues typing. “I thought you had a lecture?”

“Eh, I got bored.” Carmilla has a habit of walking out on her lectures if she gets bored, or if she gets pissed at all the incorrect facts that her professors are teaching. Laura tries to reprimand her because _Carmilla you can’t just walk out in the middle of a lecture! That’s rude!_ To which Carmilla would only reply _honestly he was being the rude one. You should have heard him babble about 17 th century Europe. He didn’t even get one thing right!_

Laura grumbles a reply and tries to concentrate on her paper, if she finishes this in an hour then she and Carmilla could go out for dinner, and she really wants burgers right now. After a minute of playing with the margins she feels a pair of arms snake around her waist. “I can hear you thinking all the way from there. What’s wrong?” Carmilla’s voice is low and sultry in her ear and Laura shivers. “Nothing, just this paper.”

Carmilla nuzzles her neck and Laura stops breathing. “You should probably take a break.” She says, pressing a kiss at the spot below her pulse. Laura leans forward and presses some random keys on the keyboard. “Carm,” She says in her most stern voice. “I have to finish this.” Carmilla’s hand plays with the hem of her shirt. “You can finish it later.” She says, nipping Laura’s earlobe. Laura takes a deep breath and deletes the random letters that she’s typed. She should congratulate herself because still hasn’t jumped on Carmilla at this point. That self-control lasts for about ten seconds because when Carmilla’s hand disappears under her shirt, nails raking Laura’s skin, Laura quickly stands up and pushes Carmilla to her bed. She straddles Carmilla’s thighs and Carmilla pulls her towards her. Laura stops her when their lips are only an inch apart.

“You’re going to do my paper later.”

“Noted,” Carmilla smirks at her and brings their lips together. “But for now, I am going to do you.”

\\\

Laura’s running back to her dorm after her afternoon class. It’s Friday and while all the other students are getting ready to go out and party (she’s heard that the Zetas are throwing one later), Laura’s going to stay in because Carmilla is leaving in a few hours and she just wants to spend as much time with her as possible.

She stops running when she’s about a block away from their building and sees Kirsch and Danny walking towards her. Danny’s holding a bouquet of daisies and Kirsch is sporting multiple cuts along his face.

“Woah,” Laura says when they’re about five feet away. “What happened to your face?”

Danny rolls her eyes and holds the bouquet up. “He took some flowers from the greenhouse and apparently, some of the plants are alive and didn’t like being picked.”

“Are you okay?” Laura asks, her brows furrowing.

“Hell yeah,” Kirsch says with a grin. “Totally worth it for my lady here.”

Danny rolls her eyes again, but there’s a fond smile on her face and she’s blushing a little. “Friday plans?”

“Yeah, just going to help Carm pack.”

“Oh yeah she’s leaving tonight. Well if you get bored the Zetas are throwing a party tonight.” Danny says with a shrug.

“It’s a valentine’s themed party.” Kirsch says proudly.

“And by valentines themed he means there are pink and red shots and some Zetas are going to be dressed as cupid.” Danny intervenes, her face grimacing. Laura matches her grimace as she imagines grown up males walking around wearing nothing but a big diaper. Yep, she’d rather stay in.

Laura laughs. “I’ve heard. Thanks guys, I’ll think about it.”

“Alright,” Kirsch says. “Bye, Laura.”

Laura bids them goodbye and she starts running again.  

\\\

“Okay, I’m leaving.”

Carmilla’s voice makes Laura jump. She’s been staring at Carmilla ever since her girlfriend got out of the bathroom and started packing her stuff, she must have spaced out for a bit. Laura pouts and nods. Carmilla walks towards her and sits on the edge of the bed, their knees touching.

“You know I don’t have to go, right?”

Laura frowns. “Yes you do. You need to do some important vampire business, remember?”

“It can wait.” Carmilla puts her hand on Laura’s knee.

“Carm,” Laura gives her a small smile. “I’ll be fine. It’s just two nights without you. I can manage.”

“Okay,” Carmilla gives her a peck and stands up. She grabs her duffel bag and looks at Laura.

“You’ll call? Right?” Laura grimaces at how clingy her voice sounds.

Carmilla kisses her forehead and gives her a smile. “Of course,” She puts her bag over her shoulder. “Tschüs. Pass auf dich auf, darling.” Carmilla disappears into a puff of smoke, leaving Laura alone in their room.

\\\

Laura wakes up on Saturday morning to the ringing of her phone. She grabs her phone from the headboard and checks the messages. There’s one from Perry, who sent a sticker on Facebook of a bear holding a rose with the caption _happy heart’s day._ Danny sent her some snapchats of the party last night, upon seeing the Zeta’s dressed as cupid, Laura suddenly became very thankful that she’s gay. There’s some messages from Carmilla that she sent at around 3am. Laura sends her a good morning text and lies back on her bed.

Now how will she spend 24 hours of being alone?

\\\

Laura is halfway through The Empire Strikes Back when her phone vibrates. Aside from a text from Carmilla last 4pm saying _good morning xx,_ her phone stayed silent for most of the time. She pauses the movie and checks her screen, LaFontaine is calling. She swipes the screen and puts the phone by her ear.

“Hello?”

“Laura I need your help!” LaFontaine’s voice is frantic and Laura suddenly sits up.

“What? Why?”

“It’s about Perry- she’s uh- there’s something..” Images of Perry being eaten be supernatural beings cross Laura’s mind and she panics.

“I’m on my way.” Laura quickly jumps off her bed and puts her shoes on. She grabs her coat and bag and dashes out of the room and onto the hallway, her footsteps echoing through the empty surroundings.

\\\

“Are you kidding me?” Laura huffs. She half-walked, half-ran to the address that LaF texted her, which turns out to be a flower shop.

“C’mon, Laura. Please” LaFontaine begs, their eyes wide. “Perry is going to kill me when she finds out I forgot flowers.”

Laura frowns, she didn’t leave her comfy bed to help pick flowers. But since she’s here she might as well help LaF. “Fine.”

They enter the store and Laura is hit with the strong scent of flowers. The shop is busy, there are people everywhere, picking last minute gifts for their special someone. LaFontaine walks towards some roses and Laura follows, eyes scanning the different bouquets. She stops walking as her eyes land on the most beautiful bouquet that she’s seen. It’s a large bouquet with pink mini carnations, hot pink roses, and white traditional daisies, there are also some greens to balance it all out. It’s very pink and white and Laura hates flowers but this one is really beautiful. It reminds her of candy. She doesn’t notice LaFontaine stop beside her.

“You’ve been looking at that bouquet like it’s got Carmilla’s face on it.”

Laura elbows their stomach. “Shut up,” She stares at the bouquet. “It’s really pretty.”

“Get your girlfriend to buy it for you.”

“Yeah, right.” Laura snorts and takes her eyes away from the flowers. “You pick anything yet?”

“I’ve narrowed it down to two. Help me pick.” LaFontaine gestures to two bouquets at the other end and they start walking towards it. Laura takes one last look at the bouquet in front of her and she follows LaFontaine.

\\\

“You sure you don’t want to have dinner with us?” LaFontaine asks, holding the bouquet that consists of 24 long stemmed roses, with white hydrangea blooms below, all wrapped in white paper. Laura shakes her head. “I’m good, I think I have some leftover roast beef in the fridge. I just hope that Carmilla didn’t eat it.”

LaFontaine balances the bouquet in one hand and pats Laura’s shoulder with their free hand. “Well, I’ll see you later then.”

Laura smiles and nods. “Happy valentines, LaF.”

“Happy valentines, L.”

LaFontaine walks away to the direction of the restaurant where they’re meeting Perry. Laura watches them until they disappear in the corner of the sidewalk. She turns around and makes her way back to her empty room. Laura takes in her surroundings as she walks, there are couples everywhere. Couples holding hands, couples cuddling, girls holding bouquets, and balloons, and teddy bears. Laura frowns and walks faster, the sight of all the happy couples just makes her miss Carmilla more. She knows she’s acting like a total valentine scrooge but she couldn’t help it, everyone’s out dating while she’s stuck in her room. And she just really, really, miss her girlfriend.

Love is in the air but Laura couldn’t feel it.

Laura walks through the empty hallway of their dorm and glares at the cut out hearts taped to the bulletin board as she wonders when she got so clingy. She laughs to herself as she thinks that she must really love Carmilla, her vampire roommate who months ago, Laura would give anything for her to leave. Laura reaches the door of their room and she stops in her tracks. The door is slightly open.

Oh crap.

Laura fishes her pepper spray from her bag and slowly inches towards the door. She holds the spray up and pushes the door open. The room is empty. She steps forward and looks at the surroundings. That’s weird, she was expecting a wrecked room, or robbers, or something supernatural jumping out but she was greeted by silence and a completely clean room.

Her eyes widen with the sudden realization of the change.

The room is clean.

Laura drops the spray and she runs in the middle, in between their beds. The floor that was littered a few hours ago with Carmilla’s clothes is now spotless. She turns around the kitchenette, the dishes that were stacked by the sink are now gone. She looks at their beds, the sheets are fixed and the books that were strewn across Carmilla’s bed are nowhere to be found.

They just got robbed. They just got robbed by somebody who has a thing for kitchenware.

Laura grabs her phone and begins dialing Carmilla’s number. She paces around the room as she waits for her girlfriend to answer the phone. After a few more rings she hears Carmilla’s voice.

 _Hey it’s Carmilla. Don’t leave a message cause I don’t care. Unless you’re Laura-_ “Dammit Carm.” Laura ends the call and dials the number again. “C’mon,” Laura mumbles as she waits for Carmilla to pick up. “Answer the phone you useless vamp-“

“ _What?”_

“Oh thank god,” Laura lets out a sigh of relief upon hearing Carmila’s voice. “We just got robbed.”

_“We just got what?”_

“Robbed! Carm. Your books and clothes are gone and even the dishes, and I don’t know who to call, should I call security? But they are literally useless so I thought I’d call you instead-“ Laura’s rambling is cut off when she hears Carmilla chuckle at the other line. “What the hell is so funny?”

_“Nothing.”_

“Well?”

_“Well what?”_

Laura sighs loudly. “What are we going to do?”

_“I’ll take care of it.”_

“What are you going to do?” Laura bites her lip. She doesn’t want to add valentines to the list of holidays that Carmilla killed someone for her. In fact, she doesn’t want to add any other instances to that list, except if it’s for self-defense of course.

 _“I don’t know yet. But I’ll take care of it. Just stay there, if someone breaks in, well you’re a big girl.”_ Carmilla hangs up the phone before Laura could even reply.

Laura puts her phone on her bed and walks over the kitchenette. She grabs a pan (the same one she used when the broke in the library) and surveys the room. Aside from the other things everything seems to be in order. Her computer seems to be in one piece, even the camera on her headboard is there. _Even the robberies here are weird_ , Laura muses. _Who the heck would take dishes even though a camera that’s worth more is literally five feet away?_

As she waits for Carmilla to get back, Laura realizes that she’s parched. She walks towards the mini fridge, hoping that at least the burglars had the decency to leave her grape soda alone. She opens the fridge and her mouth almost drops to the floor at the sight.

Their mini fridge is full of chocolates. Laura bends down and grabs some chocolates. Behind the chocolates are well, more chocolates. There are sweets on every corner of the fridge, her grape sodas and leftover foods are gone and have all been replaced by bars of Hershey’s, Cadbury, Toblerone, and Kit-Kat. The row below has been occupied by boxes of Royce’. Richart, Godiva, and other gourmet chocolates that Laura can’t pronounce the name.

“Holy shit.” Laura doesn’t swear. But she’s becoming very confused now, did she die and go to chocolate heaven? First they’ve been robbed and the burglars took some pretty useless stuff. Now their fridge looks like it came straight from Willy Wonka’s factory. She puts the sweets back and closes the fridge door, she better call Carmilla first before she eats anything, those chocolates could be poisoned for all she knows. She was about to grab her phone when the door suddenly slams open. Laura grabs her pan and gets ready to attack the intruder. Her hand drops to the side as she sees who it is.

It’s Carmilla.

Carmilla walks in the room carrying a humongous bouquet that looks awfully familiar. Laura racks her brain as she tries to remember where she saw the bouquet but she can’t because Carmilla's here and she’s walking towards Laura with a nervous look on her face.

Carmilla hands her the bouquet wordlessly and Laura finally takes a good look at it. She gasps as she finally remembers. This is the bouquet that she was looking at earlier with LaF. The huge bouquet with pink carnations, hot pink roses, and white daisies, all wrapped in yellow paper with a ribbon tied to them. She furrows her brows glances back at Carmilla. “Carm this is beautiful.” Her eyes shift back to the bouquet because it really is beautiful, it looks better up close rather than when she saw it back in the shop. Which reminds her, how the heck did Carmilla know? Maybe she has ESP or something. “Uhm, thank you. But, how?”

“Hm,” Carmilla smirks. “I can’t tell you. Otherwise I’d lose my air of mystery, won’t I?”

Laura rolls her eyes at the familiar line. “Help me find something to put this on.” Laura turns around and her eyes scan the almost empty room. “Oh my god!” She suddenly remembers the recent occurrences and why Carmilla is here. “Carm, the robbers!”

Carmilla’s reply isn’t what Laura was expecting. Laura expects something like _don’t worry cutie, I took care of it._ Or, _what did they take? Are you hurt?_ But instead her girlfriend laughs.

Carmilla laughs and laughs, her eyes squinting and are tearing up and she looks so young. Laura’s face scrunches up because even though her heart swells with how happy Carmilla looks right now they just got robbed and she’s _laughing_. “Dammit Carm!” She wacks Carmilla’s shoulder with the bouquet. “This is not a time to laugh! Your books and clothes are gone! Even the dishes!”

Carmilla recomposes herself and walks to the kitchenette. She opens the drawers next to the sink and shows Laura the contents, all the dishes are there. Carmilla then walks to the wardrobe and opens it, Laura peeks inside, Carmilla’s clothes are folded neatly at the bottom and they look like they’ve been washed.  She walks back to Laura and grabs her free hand. “For someone who watches a lot of cliché rom-coms, you sure are slow in the surprise department.”

Laura’s eyes are wide and she’s gaping at Carmilla as she tries to put the pieces together. “We didn’t get robbed?”

Carmilla chuckles and tugs Laura closer. “No.”

“You cleaned the room.” Laura states, the disbelief evident in her voice.

“You don’t sound so happy.”

“No!” Laura exclaims. “I mean yes! I mean I am happy! But oh my god,” Laura lets out a loud breathe because she still has a hard time believing that Carmilla knows how to wash dishes. “You cleaned the room.”

Carmilla rolls her eyes. “Don’t expect me to follow your chore wheel, cutie. This is a one-time thing.”

“You cleaned the room.”

“Okay you’ve been repeating that phrase over and over, should I be worried?”

“You cleaned the room! And the chocolates in the fridge! That was all you! And the flowers, you totally talked to LaFontaine!” Laura drops Carmilla’s hand and jumps up and down. “You made them distract me so you could set up everything here.”

Carmilla smiles shyly. “Congratulations for cracking the case, Sherlock.”

Lauras’ grin drops and she looks at Carmilla accusingly. “I thought you didn’t do valentines?”

“You make me do a lot of things.”

Laura blushes and hides her face behind the bouquet. “You are such a sap.”

Carmilla takes the bouquet from Laura and walks to the kitchenette. She takes a glass from the sink and fills half of it with water. Carmilla puts the bouquet in the glass and sets it at the counter, next to her speakers. Laura stares at her and she realizes that Carmilla’s cheeks are pink, contrasting to her pale face.

"Oh my god," Laura says, a smile spreading across her face. "You’re blushing!"

"No I’m not." Carmilla grumbles as she tries to bury her face deeper in her scarf.

Laura smiles wider. Carmilla’s face is as red as her scarf. "You totally are," Carmilla rolls her eyes and frowns. Laura walks towards her and presses a kiss on her cheek. “It’s actually really cute.”

Carmilla growls and bares her fangs. “I am not cute. I am a vampire.”

“A vampire who just surprised her girlfriend with flowers and chocolates!” Laura teases. Her smile suddenly falters. “And I am a bad girlfriend.”

“What?” Carmilla furrows her brows.

“I didn’t even get you anything!” Laura feels like a jerk now. “You got me all these stuff and I have nothing for you! I mean I was supposed to get you something but I thought you don’t do valentines and I just- I’m the worst girlfriend ever.”

Carmilla wraps her arms around her and Laura buries her face in Carmilla’s neck. “You’re not a bad girlfriend. You’re the best girlfriend ever.” There’s a hint of amusement in Carmilla’s voice but Laura ignores it. Her eyes look around the room and lands on her desk, where the construction paper that she used to decorate her planner is still on top of her keyboard. She suddenly gets an idea.

Laura jumps out from Carmilla’s arms. “Hang on,” She says with a smirk. She hops to her desk and grabs the yellow paper. Laura cuts it in half and starts folding. God she hopes that she still knows how to do this, last time she did this, she was probably in fifth grade. “No peeking!” She shouts over her shoulder as she folds the paper a few more times.  After a few minutes she’s finally done. She puts it behind her back and walks back to Carmilla, who hasn’t moved from her spot. Laura gives her a huge grin and hands her three paper origami's of a rose, all made with yellow construction paper.

“I know it’s not much. And it’s probably the lamest present you got. But it was the only thing that I could think of in really short notice-“ Carmilla cuts off Laura’s rambling as she presses her lips against Laura’s

“I love it.”

Laura smiles and wraps her arms around Carmilla’s waist. “You don’t have to pretend, Carm. It’s okay.”

“I’m not pretending.” Carmilla says, holding the paper flowers in one hand. “I love it.” She presses a kiss to Laura’s cheek. “And I love you, Laura Hollis.” Laura bumps her nose against Carmilla’s, her smile growing bigger. “Love you too.”

\\\

And later, when they're sitting side by side in Carmilla's bed, the sheets littered with empty chocolate wrappers. Carmilla’s arms around her waist as they watch Star Wars while stuffing their faces with imported chocolates. Laura decides that valentines isn’t that bad of a holiday after all.


End file.
